Ezidi girl rescued from American IS in western Mosul
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) on Friday announced the rescue of a Kurdish Yezidi (Ezidi) girl in western Mosul by its Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU).
The 12-year-old Ezidi girl was held by American-born Islamic State (IS) senior leader Naser Ibrahim Hamoud Taha al-Hadidi in the province of al-Jazeera, according to a CT announcement.
The CTU later rescued the girl in western Mosul.
The girl is from Khanasor in the Kurdish Ezidi city of Sinjar (Shingal) in the southern Kurdistan Region and will reunite with her family soon.
In June 2014, the extremist group occupied Mosul and shortly expanded their control over Nineveh, Diyala, Salahaddin, Kirkuk, and Anbar Provinces.
Two months later, IS attacked Ezidi towns in the Shingal area. The insurgent group immediately committed mass killings and traded women and girls as sex slaves.
Shingal was liberated in November 2015 by Kurdish Peshmerga forces with the support of the US-led coalition.
Over 80 percent of the area had been destroyed.
On Oct 17, 2016, Iraqi and Peshmerga forces launched the military operation to retake Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq captured by IS.
The forces have already liberated a majority of Mosul, and the operation is ongoing on the western side of the city.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany